Infection Z

by Beswick, Rebecca L.

  Damon rushes into my room embracing me, “what’s wrong are you hurt?” Damon asks concern in his voice, I try to calm down enough to speak “Sam she’s becoming one of them, a zombie” a shakily breath out, he becomes silent to process what I’ve told him.

  “Tell me what happened” he says calmly with shaking hands, I proceed to explain the conversation I had with Sam Amaya moments ago, I angrily rub my face to rid myself of my tears.

  “What do we do?” He asks looking unsure and lost, “we only have one real choice, kill her before she turns into one of them” I sigh voicing my decision knowing we can’t leave her outside to die alone, “what if she doesn’t turn, what if the scratch is just infected?” He asks holding onto some hope there will be a positive outcome in the end, “it is an infection that’s how they become zombies, the only reason it took this long is it was just a small scratch so it took longer to develop” I explain.

  “I’m so fucking mad at her, but she needs us to help her” Damon nods in agreement and follows me to Sam’s room, however once out of my room we find Colonel stood outside and it’s clear he heard our conversation, “there’s no helping her, if she becomes a zombie she will kill us the first chance she gets” he says with an ice cold expression.

  “she’s our friend and she’s scared, let us just see her and say goodbye while we still can” I insist, he nods and allows us to walk by, he grabs me by the wrist for a moment, “you still have that pocket knife I gave you?” He whispers, I nod silently not looking up, “you know what to do” he says releasing his grip.

  We hurry to Sam’s door and find her sat on the floor, her face a grey in colour, and her eyes losing their colour becoming almost completely white.

  “Sam?” He asks as he hesitantly approaches her, she lifts her head and smiles sadly, “I guess April told you” She laughs humourlessly her voice comes out quiet and scratchy, “baby why didn’t you tell me?” He asks, I cringe at the word, the same word I used to call the other her affectionately.

  “I was scared and knew there wasn’t anything that could be done, so decided to leave you in blissful ignorance” she replies, I continue to watch from across the room knowing she has little time left, I know I won’t get to say my goodbye to Amaya and try to make my peace with that.

  “I’m sorry it’s come to this, I’m sorry I can’t be here for you, I’m sorry I was an awful girlfriend but I have a split personality called Amaya and she has been taking over me to spend time with April, she’s in love with her” my eyes widen in fear, it didn’t cross my mind that Damon didn’t know of my time with Amaya, and internally prepared myself for the backlash that was coming.

  Unable to face the silence that was sure to follow I suggest we get her comfortable in bed, we sit by her side and speak to her giving her our love, “I’m sorry it took me so long to realise you’re the girl I want to be with, to allow myself to love and care for you, you’re the girl I want to marry, to grow old with, we didn’t get the long life together we always dreamed about but I will always remember and appreciate the time we got together, I love you” Damon says clutching her hand, and crying silently, it’s the first time I’ve seen any emotion from him in a long time.

  “I’ve loved every moment with you, I wish I could have given you more time, I’ve loved you for years and wish I’d spoken up, I’m just glad of all the time we did get together, I love you too" she tells him.

  “You’re the best friend I could have ever asked for, we’ve had so many ups and downs but you were always there for me in my worst moment, you made me feel less alone, you made me a better person, when my mum died I felt so lost but you were there for me, you brought back the light in my life she took with her, I just don’t know what I’ll do without you” I cry.

  “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you more after that episode you had, I’m sorry I couldn’t love you the way Amaya does, there are so many things I could apologise for, instead I have a parting gift” she closes her eyes and when they open again, her voice shifts to one I recognise clearly.

  “Baby” Amaya says, and my tears start flowing all the more, “I’m sorry about what I said about your mum, I didn’t mean it I was just angry, I wish I was my own person so we could’ve had a shot at being together, I may be part of Sam but my feelings for you are so real, I love you April” She says, “I know you didn’t mean it, I love you too” I shakily pull the knife from my pocket and tell him it’s time, he shakes his head saying he can’t do it, I sigh knowing I will have to do it.

  I embrace her and grasp the knife tightly, “I’m so sorry” I whisper in a trembled breath, I thrust the knife into her chest and she gasps, I lean back to look at her “it’s okay” she whispers to me and holds my hand, her grip grows weaker until she’s gone.

  We both stand from her bed and leave the room silently, I nod to Colonel on my way past letting him know she’s gone, once I reach my room my tears flow and I scream releasing all the pain inside me, throwing the knife across the room and aggressively rubbing my hands down my pants to rid myself of Amaya's blood, I never thought I would have to feel like this again after my mum passed, my pain turns to anger and I throw my dresser and all its draws on the floor, I shove my bed and anything else in sight, I keep breaking everything until a strong embrace prevents me from doing anymore, “I’m so sorry buttercup” he says quietly.

  I fall to my knees and cry in his embrace until there’s nothing left, sometime later I must have fallen asleep as I wake in my bed, I look around to see my room looking more organised with the smashed items removes, I’m still so tired and feeling weak I close my eyes once again.

  Chapter 11

  Damon’s POV

  The days following Sam’s death were quiet, the house became a quieter place with her absence, I found it hard to face April after Sam’s last day, I carry a grudge that she was in a relationship with my girlfriend behind my back, she looked me in the eyes each day with a smile when she was secretly stabbing me in the back, of course Sam isn’t blameless however it’s harder to hold a grudge against the dead.

  She explained it wasn’t her but her split personality that made it that way, technically it wasn’t truly Sam that April had been seeing but physically it was, I know April is hurting just as much as I am but each time I approach her door I remember how she betrayed me, I turn around and pretend I was never there.

  However some good has risen from the loss of Sam, myself and Colonel have started to spend time together, the time lost after he left us many years ago, he tells me he taught April some fighting and defence skills, it helped her cope with her trauma and helped them grow closer.

  “Have you spoken to April after Sam…” he trails off not wanting to add more pain than I already feel, “no I haven’t seen her” I reply with a huff, “I know I wasn’t around for a long time so I don’t know your relationship with April, but at the end of the day she’s your sister, she was your girlfriend but she was also her best friend of many years, she really needs you, she needs her big brother” the guilt pangs from his words, I know he’s right but my ego has been preventing me from being there for her.

  After our talk I decide to head to bed, I look to Aprils door when I reach the top of the stairs and sigh knowing I need to overcome my childish grudge, I approach her door and knock lightly but there’s no response, I knock more forcibly but still silence from the other side of the door.

  I turn the door handle and push it open to see her bed is vacant, I walk inside gingerly not wishing to invade her privacy, I notice all her things are still here so she hasn’t left, she’s just not in her room.

  I close the door behind me again and decide to walk to my room, but Finnian appears and meows at me, he leads me to Sam’s door which I notice that once was closed is now wide open, I slowly approach her room unsure if I’m prepared to enter.

  Once entering the room I take a deep breath and take a look around the room, all of Sam’s things remain untouched except her locket that once sat on he
r desk is now gone.

  As I turn to leave I jump in fright at a body lying in Sam’s bed, Finnian jumps up and curls up by their side, on second glance it’s clear April is lying in her bed, she remains facing the wall staring at the missing locket between her hands, Sam’s face is in one side, while April’s is in the other.

  I walk closer to the bed and lightly touch her shoulder, she jumps in surprise almost falling from the bed, “Damon I’m so sorry I’ll go” she stutters clambering from the bed.

  “Have you been sleeping here?” I ask, she nods looking increasingly more nervous by the minute, “I just wanted to feel closer to her, I know that’s weird”, I shake my head in disagreement with a smile, “you two were so close for years, and you got close to another part of her I never understood, that’s got to be hard to deal with a loss like that” her eyes widen in shock, she slowly nods in response.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t come to talk to you sooner, I guess I was so lost in my own grief, and angry at you that I didn’t consider what you were going through too, I felt like she cheated on me with you and just felt so betrayed” I laugh awkwardly.

  “I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did, I thought she talked to you about it, and I know it doesn’t make sense but I never dated Sam, I dated Amaya, her personality was completely different, Amaya wasn’t Sam’s split personality, she was her twin she absorbed in the womb” I nod along trying to process what she was telling me.

  “How is that even possible, and why didn’t we meet Amaya sooner?” I ask finding what she was telling me impossible, and seeming as just an excuse to not seem like Sam cheated on me with her.

  “In fact let’s just drop this, how about we go through her things together?” I suggest wanting to do anything except discuss our shared relationship with Sam.

  We open her draws and go inter her bag and decide what items we wanted to keep, to remember her by.

  April decides to keep the locket, as well as some scarves and hats, I keep some polaroid’s Sam took of herself.

  We make her bed and leave the room how we found it, “will it ever get easier?” April asks, “losing the people we love?” She continues.

  “It never gets easier, I think you deal in better ways over time, but it will never not hurt losing someone you love, I tend to push my feelings back or hide my grief but it makes it much harder to deal with, when you lose someone it hurts so much like you’ve lost a big piece of yourself, and it’s hard to want to live when that piece is taken away, but by living day by day it gets easier until you’re no longer sad when you think of who you’ve lost, you’re happy because you know they’re at peace” I explain, and I hope my words were enough to forgive my absence.

  Chapter 12

  April’s POV

  I wake up to the alarm I set the day before, the first time in a long time I had woken so early to do my training with Colonel.

  I dress quickly and approach his room, I knock lightly so not to wake the others that are still asleep, he answers looking wide awake as usual, it’s clear even when we’re not training he wakes this early.

  “April you’re up early” he says with a smile.

  “I wanted to train with you today if that’s okay?” I ask.

  “You don’t have to, I didn’t wake you so you could have take some time for yourself, it’s only been a few days since…” he trails off with a sympathetic smile.

  “I want to, I’ve missed it” I admit, he sighs in defeat knowing there’s no convincing me any different.

  “Let’s go” he announces closing his door behind him and striding down the hallway and down the long staircase, I follow him jogging to keep up with his long strides.

  We soon reach the secret training room, “today we’ll work on your strength, not only the strength to attack your enemies but the strength needed for escape when you’re surrounded with no way to fight your way out”, Colonel explains, he pulls out the training dummy and instructs me to hit it with the bat, I repeat this multiple times while he watches me.

  He shows me different training techniques and different exercises to build my strength up, he advises when cornered to make a run for it as I am faster than the zombies, hide in an abandoned building, or climb a tree and wait, we continue these techniques for a few hours until Colonel decides we’ve done enough for the day.

  As per our usual routine we head to the kitchen for breakfast, he makes me fried eggs and bacon and we both take a seat to enjoy our breakfast together.

  “How have you been?” He asks me, I take a bite of my eggs while I think of how best to respond, “I’m okay considering, I have been finding just getting up in the morning kind of hard though, it’s trying to find a point in continuing to survive, every time I start to relax someone dies, it feels like being happy is impossible” I sigh while continuing to eat breakfast.

  “I can’t imagine how it must feel to lose so much in such a little space of time, but I’m proud of how well you’ve handled it, you’re still here trying your best and that’s pretty amazing” Colonel replies, I try to hide my smile at his words despite losing my mum, my best friend and the girl I loved so quickly I still have someone who I can depend on besides Damon, it’s starting to feel that the man who was absent my whole life really has come back.

  Noah’s POV

  I watch as April and Colonel return to their rooms, things were so much better before April and her friends turned up, without her Colonel wouldn’t have attacked me, we wouldn’t have had an almost zombie infestation, all these people are is trouble for me and everyone else here.

  I know I can’t just kick them out, Colonel wouldn’t allow it and neither would the others here, but I have to separate them from us somehow even if that means endangering everyone here.

  I sneak into the security room where the gate and cameras are controlled, I sigh knowing if anyone found out what I was doing I would be so dead, I click a few buttons until all our security systems turn off disabling the gate, I take a look outside and see a few zombies starting to walk through the now open gate, I smirk knowing my plan is in full swing, there’s no way we can go against a whole swarm of zombies.

  I wait a few moments until there are crowds of zombies in the garden and sneak back out the security room, once the zombies start to bang on the door and windows I know it’s time to get everyone out, I rush to everyone’s bedroom banging on their doors.

  Everybody leaves looking groggy and annoyed at the early intrusion, “sorry to wake everyone but somethings gone wrong, there are zombies in the garden!” I announce trying to sound as panicked as possible, “how could this happen we have a reliable security system” someone says, “are we going to die?” someone else asks, there’s a flurry of questions and panic.

  “We all knew this day would come, everyone pack a bag quickly then get out through the back door, we’ll meet outside and all get out together” Colonel instructs, I rush to my room to get packed as do the others.

  Once packed I head to the door and let everyone out until all that’s left is Colonel, April and Damon, with a smirk I close the door and lock it behind me, now they’re stuck there with no escape, if they get out we'll be long gone by the time they do.

  We all board the truck, “where’s Colonel and the others?” Sarah asks in concern, “Colonel told me we can go, he’s with family now so they’ll take the other car" I reassure her with a smile.

  April’s POV

  I throw everything important into my bag and rush out of my room grabbing Finnian on the way out, once Damon and Colonel emerge from their rooms we all hurry downstairs to the back door, the zombies are banging on the windows and the front door trying to get in, with escape within our grasp we run to the back door but after turning the handle it doesn’t open, I pull on it hard but it hardly moves.

  “The door is stuck" I tell them filled with panic and dread, one of the windows smashes and zombie arms grab wildly at us from outside, Finnian hisses and climbs into my bag from fear, Colonel tries
the door but to no avail, with little time or other escape routes he throws his weight on the door but it still doesn’t budge, he does it again and again but the door remains closed.

  We kick at the door and it slowly begins to give, eventually the door breaks open and we all make our escape just as the zombies burst through the windows and the front door, we get outside but soon realise the others left without us.

  “The car!” Colonel announces and we all run to the car, we throw our stuff inside and clamber in barely escaping the zombies, with a sigh of relief we drive for some time trying to find a new location, we drive until all the city disappears and all that’s left is a large forest with tall trees looking above us.

  After some time the car slows until it stops completely, “why are we stopping?” I ask, “the car has run our of fuel, we’ll take a walk and set down our stuff for the evening" Colonel explains.

  We grab our things and take a slow walk through the darkening forest, I try and shake the freaky feeling that this forest mimics the one that’s always in my dreams.

  By nightfall we have found somewhere acceptable by Colonel to set down our things, “let’s grab some of these sticks and start a fire" Damon suggests, we grab as many sticks as we can and Colonel starts the fire, and after some time we decide to get some sleep, we lay around the fire with our pillows and blankets.

  A few days later it’s clear the others have scattered as we haven’t seen them since we left the house, with supplies scarce we’ve had to get used to hunting and eating what we catch.